 United States and Secretary William Bennett. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Secretary Bennett and I welcome you to the White House. Please be seated. I think I yeah this is a chance I have spent some rather unhappy moments in a principal's office but I think before we get into the brief remarks that I have here in case you have been away from the news disseminating forces in these last in this last hour or so should tell you that as of now our hostage in Moscow Mr. Danilov has been transferred to the custody of our ambassador Soviet spy in our custody will be transferred to the care pending his trial of his ambassador here in the United States but we're so relieved and happy that Mr. Danilov is out of that 8 by 10 foot cell which he was a sharing with someone we think was an informant and that he won't be subjected to four hours of interrogation every day but now we'll get back to well some good news that I want to mention before we get into the great job that your schools have been doing today there is every indication that our country is waking up to a problem that has been ignored denied and buried away for too long last month the Gallup poll found that for the first time Americans now consider drugs the number one problem in our schools in recent survey conducted by weekly reader elementary school children said the very same thing there are those who might be dismayed by these poll results no one likes to hear about problems such as drug use but what these polls suggest to me is that at long last we're ready to face a major challenge to our society you know better than anyone else what drugs can do to our children's minds bodies and and lives well America is mobilizing and together as a people we're going to expel drugs from our schools and free our young people from this evil in a couple of days for example the Department of Education will be issuing a handbook schools without drugs it's designed to help teachers principals and parents and anyone else interested in children get and keep drugs out of the schools the American people are ready to make a policy statement and make it stick drugs and education don't mix Sunday I'll be addressing the nation on this issue Nancy will be joining me and having some remarks to make but today I'd like to take this opportunity call on teachers across America to take the pledge to take no drugs themselves and to do the best they can to keep all drugs out of schools we owe our children nothing less than a good example in a good environment education is too vital to our country's future to let it be corrupted by drugs and it's also too important not to strive for the best fostering excellence in education of course is the purpose behind our school recognition program hearing about what you've accomplished is enough to give anyone confidence in the future that's how significant the job you're doing is to America and that's why the 1985 86 school year was declared the year of the elementary school by recognizing schools like yours we're underscoring the critical nature of those first few years of a child's education elementary school is where the skills of reading and writing are learned and where children can gain a fundamental knowledge of our country and our common heritage it was a great shock the other day to see that study that revealed how many high school juniors could not on a map point out where England France or Germany are and it all begins with what you're doing and now doing so well it's where they develop the habits and values and demeanor that will make them not only successful students but eventually successful mothers fathers workers neighbors and citizens Plato who is one of secretary Bennett's favorite philosophers once said that the beginning is the most important part of the work that certainly applies to education and that makes you and our elementary schools the most important players in the game much attention but much attention is given to other levels of education but I'd suggest that next to the family elementary schools are the most influential institutions in our children's lives why is it that this advanced point in my life I can still remember pretty clearly that first grade at the school in Galesburg Illinois where I where I first started and by that token it would be hard to find a group of 272 institutions in this country they're more significant than the group that we're honoring here today as many of you are aware secretary Bennett last week issued a report he wrote called first lessons it's a report in the state of elementary education in America and it's the first one that we've had since 1953 he found that our elementary schools are overall pretty good shape by some measures they're doing better now than they have in years and I'd say that's terrific news some areas though need improvement with television and movies so prevalent it's difficult to teach reading yet every single child in this country needs this fundamental skill a better job could be done in the teaching of science to our youngest children our Yankee ingenuity won't mean much in the future without a knowledge and appreciation of science and technology and finally a better job could be done in teaching our youngest children about history and geography and civics by the time our students leave elementary school they should know the essential facts the central institutions and the fundamental principles of the United States and Western civilization now I realize that all of you are on the front lines in the battle to accomplish the things I just spoke about in fact your heroes in that battle every American for example can be proud of schools like the futures academy in Buffalo where students have been preparing for citizenship by conducting trials and class elections and Calusa Elementary in Cape Coral Florida where students recently wrote books in English class and then bound them in art class and Johnson Elementary in Bridgeport West Virginia where 90% of the students read at or above grade level and 99% are at or above grade level in math we're proud of you and we want the rest of the country especially your peers to know of your accomplishments if every elementary school would just aim for the heights that you have already achieved education in this country would be taking one giant step forward one thing more before we get to your story it is evident that of our youngest children are nurtured and educated in our families and in our schools and a great number of social ills can be averted before they arise having Washington usurp local authority or announcing a slew of federal guidelines or edicts isn't going to accomplish anything in fact that approach has had a negative impact if progress is to be made parents teachers and the entire community must get together and get personally involved in education if parents and teachers make certain a child can read and as a respect for hard work by the time he leaves elementary school they've done more to ensure that that child's future than any federal program can ever hope to do in the end parents and schools of the heart and soul of the process by which we raise successful responsible citizens nobody else can really replace you and that's why this country salutes you today you know sometimes when I've had an opportunity to speak to young people about reading and books I've tried to tell them from my particular vantage point age wise that you can never be lonely if you've got a book to read my idea of the worst thing in the world that can happen to me is to be in caught in a hotel room some night with nothing to read God bless you all and thank you for what you're doing